December 19

I’m a short distance east of the village of Vestaburg, hiking in the 200-acre Alma College Ecological Station where the morning temperatures are in the low 30’s and skies are overcast. Soon, I come upon a lifeless, football-size, Bald-faced Hornet’s nest hanging from the branch of an American Beech tree. Last spring, a single queen hornet found this spot and began chewing up rotting wood to mix with her saliva to create a papery cellulose material for nest construction. She then, laid eggs in newly built brood cells (stock photo). After hatching, these offspring assumed the duties of nest building, food collection, feeding, and guarding the nest. By the end of summer, this nest may have contained over 300 offspring that had built a nest as large as this one. As summer turned to fall, the queen gave birth to the next generation of queens who then left the nest, finding their overwintering spot and beginning the process over again. Hornets in this nest all died during the first frost. However, the nest continues to provide food for birds who will tear it apart over the winter consuming dead insects. After passing through a dense, leafless woodland where some Turkey-tail fungi are seen, I make my way down grade onto a leaf-covered dock across a wetland covered with a thick layers of Sphagnum moss. Carefully, stepping off the dock, I’m not surprised that my boot sinks down into a spongy, squishy layer of this moss. Although, it’s possible to walk on this stuff, there is a risk of getting stuck up to your knees. Following the dock to the edge of the moss layer, I scan the open water of an ice-covered, 30-acre lake whose water is moderately acidic. This ecosystem, referred to as a peat bog is rarely seen in this area. Along the shore, I spot a patch of dormant Pitcher plants, an insectivorous species typically found in peat bogs. These plants consume insects by luring them into their colorful, hollow leaves that resemble hooded vessels. These vessel-shaped "pitchers" are filled with digestive enzymes that transform the insects into nourishment for the plants. As winter approaches, these leaves will wither and die. Come next spring, new leaves or pitchers will sprout from rhizomes in the soil.  Continuing to explore the lakeshore, I spot a few, edible bog cranberries still on a bush, so I pick and eat one. Nearby, I see the bare branches of a Tamarac tree, one of only a few conifer trees that is not evergreen, shedding its needles in the fall and growing new ones in the spring.  Leaving the bog and heading back toward the car, I notice fresh scat, most likely from a fox and a large, 1/2-ton glacial erratic boulder covered with moss.

 

Late December

I remember

End of the year

Solstice near

Sun shines low

Reflecting snow

Shadows long

Winds strong

Trees undressed

Nature at rest

 

D. DeGraaf